There have been some improvements to life since exhaustion/fretfulness.
• The wick has been removed from Edward’s abscess, so now it can heal up, and he says it feels like it is indeed healing. He has had a shower and washed his hair, after a week of not being able to do so. (I would have washed his hair in the sink if there’d been one more delay, but he was very reluctant to have me do that, so I’m glad it didn’t come to that.)
• I called the pediatrician again, deciding I would stay on hold for no more than 15 minutes, and then I would write them a letter saying I could not get through their system and could they please call me at their convenience. But mere seconds after I worked my way through the automated options, someone picked up. It was so fast, I hadn’t even rehearsed what I was going to say, and had to go with “Oh!! Uh!! Hi!!” And now Edward has an appointment for later this week, and it’s nice to know we’ll have a doctor checking the progress of the healing, even though I am twitchy about going into yet another medical building.
• I looked up his antibiotic, the one the doctor gave him three more days’ worth of but at a different dosage, and the CHANGED dosage is the normal full dosage. What he was on before was double the standard dosing. So I felt okay about just letting this one go and giving him the reduced-but-normal dosage for three days, whether or not that’s what the doctor intended. If it had been for a longer period of time, I would have forced myself to call, and I had found a phone number that looked promising as a place to start, which made me feel less flaily and more as if there was something I could do if I needed to.
• Edward’s MRI appointment is over, and it feels good just to have that no longer looming up on the calendar. It felt especially good because it looked like it was going to be THE WORST: he has to drink a bunch of special fluid before the MRI, and he drank a bunch and then barfed it up, and they said they’d take a sample image to see if they could do the MRI anyway, but if not we’d have to reschedule: they weren’t going to let him try again with more fluid. This place is about an hour and a half away and stressful to get to, and thinking of having done all the anticipation and all the worry that we should cancel and all the driving and all the coaxing Edward to drink the nasty fluid, and then have to do it all again another day—well. But then: they COULD get the images anyway! so they did the whole MRI! All the way home, Edward and I were jubilant, way more jubilant than if it had just gone normally without first the pit of potential despair. (We’re also increasingly cranky about the insistence that he drink a FULL LITER of the fluid, when it is OBVIOUS that’s not necessary. This time he drank not even half a liter, then threw most of it up, and they could still get the images.)
• We got an email from the vet, following up on her voice mail from Friday. I didn’t get a voice mail on Friday, but it’s an issue with my phone, not with the vet; Paul is working on it, having discovered because of this that he is having the same issue with his phone. Anyway, it looks like one of the cat’s kidneys has shut down for reasons unknown, and the other is larger because it’s doing the work of two and not because there’s a tumor; the active kidney is infected, but it’s important to get the right antibiotic so we’re waiting on the results of the urine culture. In the meantime she has prescribed a comically expensive cat food, and a general dewormer just in case of parasites. We’re going to try the antibiotics and the prescription food, then she’ll see him again in two weeks; if he hasn’t gained weight, we’ll decide what the next step might be. Things are still uncertain (neither the vet nor the ultrasound technician think that what they’ve found so far is enough to explain his weight loss), but I’d been thinking there was a strong chance that after Friday’s appointment we’d be making the hard choice to put the cat down, so this reprieve is welcome. And it also felt good to know the vet didn’t forget us: it was our own fault we were left hanging, not hers.
• Paul has found ways he can track both the electric meter and the water meter online, so he can SEE us, for example, pre-heating the oven or taking a shower or whatever. He has already tracked down two fixable issues.
• In doing the blog project where I update the links and photos that broke during the move from Blogspot to WordPress, I accidentally discovered another blog that was posting my posts, as-is, as if the posts were their own, with my photos and everything. I went through the reporting process, but it did not fill me with confidence (for example, it asked me to provide the URL of every single stolen post, but there were hundreds, so I just gave a sample of four or five posts plus an explanation, but then the form wouldn’t submit because the explanation was not in URL format), and also I was worried because all the stolen posts were from when my blog was on Blogspot, so I thought that might muddy the waters if the “proof” I was giving showed the posts on WordPress instead—but I learned today that that other blog HAS been deleted.
• I saw a story online about a family who has lost several members to Covid-19, and, along with having some things on my list resolve and others improve and others removed altogether, it helped reset my perspective. That isn’t something someone else can point out to me (is there anything more annoying and less effective than being reminded that you are not literally the worst-off person in the entire world?), but it’s something that can help if I tell it to myself. My whole extended family is still well; no one is sick, no one has died. (As long as I don’t start thinking “Yeah, but this streak can’t last.”)
• But new fret: it looks like we might have to make decisions soon about things such as “Do we let our college kids go back to in-person college, or….or what? Drop out? Take a year off? Would they be allowed back at the college if they did take a year off? What are the options here? Who gets to make the decision, us or them or a combination? If they DO go…can they come back home, and if so, how?” I’m trying to wait until the choice is actually upon us, since plans keep changing and a lot can happen between now and then, so we don’t even know what our choices ARE yet—but on the other hand, this is now something that will have to happen NEXT MONTH, which sounds pretty soon.
My husband is a professor. His college looks to the students/outside that it will be business as usual but on the back end they are working overtime to insure that it is not business as usual. But it’s hard because we live in a place where a lot of people are going “I’m not leaving my house until there’s a vaccine” and Also a lot of people saying “the virus is a hoax” and everything in between. And the plans represent that and so are pretty much all over the place.
Currently my husband’s classes are all listed as in person classes but none of them will be totally in person. The changes to the catalog are all being rolled out… Um next week maybe. Despite the fact that students have already enrolled.
I guess I’m saying that maybe you will have some options that you can’t fully see right now.
YAY for all the positive resolutions of things!!
I’m in the same boat re: decisions about college, but my son’s college is in NYC and it seems they are actually approaching this in a thoughtful, measured way. They’re only bringing freshman onto campus, they’re having a multi-day move-in period, many classes will be online-only.
And it’s looking like Thanksgiving is going to be via Zoom no matter what, and my parents are in NYC, so he can have visits with them in the park.
But, still. STILL.
Ugh, the college decisions. I have two this year. Their schools are saying that they are *planning* to reopen, but what does that realistically look like? So for now we’re kind of acting like it’s normal times – buying some dorm stuff (but only things that will be easy to return), signing up for meal plan, etc. Like you, I’m worried about what will happen if they get sick, either ill enough that they need to be hospitalized or sick enough that they can’t take care of themselves. (I worry about things like – how will I get them home? is everyone at home then going to get exposed and symptomatic??)
Please keep us posted on what happens with your family’s decisions.
I feel for this generation of uni-goers. So many of the things that make college unique and interesting just won’t be as advertised, it seems. Still, they’ll find their way, I suppose, they’re adaptable and tech savvy and whatnot. And there’ll be a vaccine sooner or later.
Great to hear about all the improvements though. Hurray! Relief is bliss, showers are heaven. I hope the cat responds well to his antibiotics. ^^
Oh those are such good resolutions!
I have been very fretful about school. No college for us yet, but I have a 1st and 3rd grader who have developmental delays who got accepted into a school for kids with special needs. This is a DREAM school for them. But it is far-ish away and they would need to ride the bus. The school is small, the ratios are very low and good for social distancing but 😬. I’m so worried! And if we give up their spot the chances of them ever getting back in are slim to none.
This is a good upward trend. It is so odd about the MRI drink. WHY SO MUCH?
I’m so glad that it seems the cat can be treated and has more time ahead.
I’m also a professor. Almost all colleges right now are extremely worried about enrollment and having the funds to continue as an institution without firing half their employees, so it is likely that even if they say they’re going back face to face, they have plans in place to accommodate students who prefer to be at home/on line for health reasons. My tiny liberal arts college is doing that, and most of my friends’ institutions are, too. If we get to August and it’s not safe to go back (this is my strong bet) but Rob and William’s colleges are still going back, ask about online options.
In the same boat re: college. My daughter is SO excited about her freshman year but I’m hearing that people in that town are not social distancing or wearing masks; they are always required on campus but not in the town itself. Her roommate decided to stay home this year, so now we’re waiting to see if she’ll get a new roommate and if that roommate wants to match the bedding/decor we have already bought, and that seems like such a small thing but these poor kids have given up a lot this year already and matching bedding is the very least I can do to make it a little more normal.
They still haven’t even had their graduation ceremony; back in May the school rescheduled it for late July, but a large contingent of seniors and their moms are going to Florida the week before (F L O R I D A) (and they’re FLYING THERE) and I know most of them don’t care about masks and my daughter is terrified now of going to graduation and catching the virus from one of them and then not being able to move into the dorm. UUUGHHSGHSHHFDKF
And I know others have it much worse, but that doesn’t make it suck less.
Omg. I have a friend who doesn’t believe in the seriousness of this (Or vaccines) and wrote on fb today “I’ve been on six planes in the last few months”
I am equal parts horrified and like, “why does she get to win at irresponsibility roulette?“ WHY!?!?!?!
Florida. On a plane. In a pandemic. Like, what about any of that sounds like a good idea?
I love all of that happy news, even the part about the kitty kidney having shut down, because that seems to point to a manageable issue (with subQ fluids, expensive food, etc) rather than the big C.
I work for a university and if it’s any help at all, at the moment we are aiming for maximum flexibility. If you’re not comfortable with in-person, ask about online options. Most of our classes are trying to figure out some sort of online option, even if it’s kind of informal. We have the whole range of families from – open up, it’s fine, I want my kid to have the full college experience to I’m not sure I’ll even be able to travel back to campus at all. Now, you won’t get any concrete answers if you ask right now so sit tight if you can.
Colleges are in a tough spot, esp. now that ICE has said that online-only colleges will mean visa cancellations for international students (so, uh, we deport people from the US in the middle of a pandemic, *brilliant*! We can penalize internationals *and* force colleges to open up!)(note: I do not think this is brilliant. I think this is evil.).
Unless something weird-good happens, given normal college epidemic structures, I would really not be expecting any given college to be finishing out the term in person – some will presumably close “earlier” in the “oh, shoot, this isn’t working” process than others, but 1. because of ICE and funds, they’re likely all or almost all going to need to open “in person” in some capacity and 2. I’d be *really* surprised if they don’t close down within 2 months at the outside. When they close down, the classes that have started as online-only classes are *likely* to be in a better position to finish out the semester according to plan (see: all the professors scrambling madly to convert their classes to online-only in late March – we were really lucky in that the school deciding to close coincided with spring break, so my husband had a *full week* to get from his lecture-and-in-class-discussion one day, small-group work another day plans to at least get the first chunk of “online only” things sorted).
There are likely enough online-from-the-start classes available (especially this year, as various professors go “uh. I’m high risk.”) to be a full load. That said, online classes aren’t the same as in-person, and are harder to keep up motivation for, and that sucks. But it *probably* sucks less than moving somewhere, having things be normal-new-semester for a week or two, then having things get increasingly uncertain and/or vaguely dystopian, and then frantically moving back while uncertain as to your individual infection status with someone immunocompromised at home. (also, obviously, online-only classes would suck less than having to be a patient at an improvised on-campus medical center set up in a gym or large hall as schools used to do for epidemics that they didn’t quite get on top of in time; I’m really hoping that colleges are consulting with doctors and with historians as they figure out their contingency plans. I mean, being a patient in the Yoga Room Hospital Ward would be, like, historic and interesting and stuff, but it would *suck.*)
But also it might be fine, if students wear masks everywhere and if schools put enough precautions in place (I have low confidence on either of those for our local university, though). It just looks, from here, fairly unlikely to be fine.
Also: different universities start on different dates, and you [and university in question] may be able to Learn From Others if your start date is a while later than the earliest? Remembering that tests lag actual cases, hospital admissions lag from tests, and deaths lag from hospital admissions [if things are functioning properly rather than when the country is in the situation where they are *only* testing people who are on death’s door and being admitted to hospital], so a half-week before move-in, you can check on the situation in a few college towns that started earlier and see what the case curve has been like and make a decision from there? But if it were me: I’d see what online-only courses were on offer and go with those (and contact advising for guidance as well, because sometimes they know about things that aren’t up yet).
Just as a data point, we’re being asked to make our in-person syllabi completely flexible, so that we can go online at any point without that desperate scramble from spring semester. The fact that this is not really possible because online and in-person pedagogy are extremely different hasn’t been part of the Very Encouraging Messaging. But that’s the idea, anyway.
I’m glad your school has that idea and is communicating it to people! Ours is, uh, not quite there yet. But maybe schools will start publicly posting their Good Ideas and will be able to learn from each other? Or maybe they’ll keep them on the down-low so that students will all sign up for classes in person so they won’t have as much of a tuition hit, sigh.
I’m so glad Edward is on the mend!
WTF about the other stealy blog…? Is that… profitable? I can’t even.
School. I have a preschooler (her school currently plans to open, not sure if I am going to send her) (we’re in TX), and a rising kindergartener. The district has decided we can choose either all online (heck no) or all in person, but I’m leaning toward homeschooling. I don’t want her to start school, get all attached, and then have to stay home when there’s another spike (WHEN). But I’m already going batty with no childcare of any kind.
Similar boat here. My littler’s preschool is very small, 5 classrooms total, and very conscientious so I feel ok. Also he is losing his mind. But my older’s going into first grade, in a K-8 school. The class sizes are small, but many of the teachers are elderly, the building is older, and they have already said “all in person, no online choice”. I’m very worried about the lunchroom (it’s in the basement), the HVAC, all that stuff. I really can’t homeschool as I work full time, it’s semi-doable having them home since March, but I want her to learn to read (if only so she will LEAVE ME ALONE occasionally) and obviously first grade is important for other reasons.
Anyway it’s a lot and I keep putting off thinking about it.
Paul “tracked down two fixable issues.” What were they? Too boring to even mention? And how does Paul handle his new power? In my household there would be a lot of dinner updates on which meter is being effected by which person/activity, not to mention plenty of comments throughout the day. I would be glad for the solution but not delighted by the updates. Have you been spared?
I have not been spared, but I am pretty good at appearing to listen attentively and then applying praise. The key words so far seem to be “filters” and “vent adjustments.”
For your college students, ask their schools about the policies for a voluntary leave. A leave lets the student step away for a semester or two before returning to school. The “voluntary” part means that your student is in good academic standing, as opposed to an involuntary leave due to low grades or disciplinary issues.
I’m a college professor who is heavily involved in contingency planning. We are working out multiple scenarios to keep the community safe. There are lots of unknowns, which is hard on students and their families. Take good care.
I also work in higher ed and can say, with confidence, that there is 0% chance I would have my kid live in a residence hall this year. Residence halls are the ideal breeding ground for a pandemic and the question isn’t “will there be outbreaks on campus?” but rather “how many students/faculty/staff will die?”. Most schools are already working on liability waivers so students/families can’t sue them for COVID exposure because, no matter how hard we try (and we are trying SO HARD) we cannot guarantee safety. Unfortunately, safety is not the primary motivation for some schools (any school planning for a football season is not using safety as their primary decision maker). I don’t want to shame any families that make the choice to send their kids, but online is surely the safer option and I suspect almost all schools will end up offering that as an option. Harvard went first in some ways, which will open the floodgates in the next few weeks.
ICE has said it’ll deport international students who are enrolled in online-only schools, and Harvard has said it’s challenging that, but that’s likely to bounce all the way up to the Supreme Court, which is likely to take too long to be useful, unfortunately. It’s not necessarily clear whether there are loopholes – whether, for instance, campuses which wouldn’t be safe with all the students (I can’t think of a college campus which would be safe at full population doing normal class rotation, even without students living in dorms, honestly – there’s just too much shared indoor air) could have in-person classes for *only* international students or something like that.
Princeton was going to only do in-person classes for grad students and keep the undergrads safe, but they’re now leaning towards a half-the-students-in-the-fall, half-the-students-in-the-spring model, which is a lot more dense of a population than just spreading the grad students over the whole campus. Still, half-density is better than full?
But it’s bonkers. If campuses don’t close quickly in response to case numbers rising and instead wait too long, such that their student health centers and local hospitals exceed capacity, it’s not like they’d be able to easily get doctors and nurses from surrounding areas to staff the gym/hall/etc. improvised hospital wards, since those medical professionals will be wanted everywhere at the same time. (this is what lots of older schools historically did with on-campus epidemics! They sent home whoever they could send home, and the too-sick students in excess of local medical capacity get cots/whatever in giant improvised hospital wards in one or more of the buildings and are taken care of in part by people the university hauls in. Cholera! Spanish Influenza! Etc. But it’s been a really long time since we’ve had something this contagious that makes an adequate percentage of people who get it this sick.)
Like, great plan White House, let’s pressure universities and public schools to open as normal in the fall so that *basically every area of the US* crashes out with an explosion of COVID at around the same time such that there’s no option of redirecting PPE or of shipping ventilators from a state that’s doing fine to a state that’s underwater, and such that doctors and nurses everywhere are all overtaxed at the same time. Augh.
(but yes! A lot of faculty and staff are working *very very hard* to pressure upper administration to actually *do things* to keep students safe! And I’m sure some administration people are doing so as well! Most of us don’t *want* any college students to die preventable deaths! But dorms, unless maybe they’re the each-room-has-its-own-bathroom dorms, are really not a good plan from a contagion point of view.)
I completely agree with you. It’s not will it happen, it’s how bad will it be? We have not publicly said much about football yet and I hope that’s because they are waiting for a Big 12 or NCAA mandate to take the decision out of their hands.
So glad that Edward is feeling better! And all the other good resolutions. The fake blog, however, irritates me to no end. I’m glad it’s gone. I know you are on WordPress and this is a Blogger solution (http://amitjainonline.blogspot.com/2009/04/disable-prevent-copy-on-blog-or-site.html); but I’m sure you can find a similar WordPress solution. I did this with by blog years ago, and I don’t think you can copy any of my content.
I work for a college and we have three different class plans in place, depending on the type of class (some will be all on-line, some might meet in a classroom, if social distanced, and some will be flexible where a portion of the students will meet one day and the others will meet another day and do the rest online). Fortunately we generally have small classes. Our dorms will switch over to single occupancy (with a very few exceptions) and we have dropped the freshman requirement to live on campus. Hopefully this helps, but things change so rapidly.
The thing about the liquid reminds me of being pregnant, when they tell you to drink so much water for the ultrasound. I did everything by the book on my first pregnancy and when I went in to get my ultrasound I thought for sure I’d pee all over the table. They took one look and said “How much water did you DRINK? We can’t see anything.” Then they gave me a giant cup to fill with pee. I mean. I drank what you said to drink, people. After that I drank maybe half of what they said. Maybe I’m just regularly hydrated, but I think they give these extreme volumes just so people will drink SOME. Anyway, that’s what it reminded me of. I am SO glad you got to get the MRI because driving is so stressful, and the whole thing is so stressful, and I think I would have gone right over the edge if they had to reschedule. Glad things are looking up in your house. xo
I’m glad to hear Edward’s better and there’s a path forward for the cat. So strange about the blog… What’s the motivation to do that?
N’s college has already changed its mind about its fall plans (from October opening to a rolling opening with some students coming back in September and everyone on campus by October and everyone leaving after T-giving) but I would not be the least bit surprised if they change again. I have a professor friend who posts different colleges’ plans daily and the general trend if a college changes is to go from in person to online.
I don’t understand the point of having students come to campus in Aug/Sept. to then send them home at Thanksgiving and not come back. (I’m also not sure if that is done for the year or they come back at the start of second semester). One of our state schools is (or was, it may have changed now) planning to do this. Why drag students in from all over the state for 3 months? To get at least one semester of room and board out them?
Waiting to see what is going to happen with my kid’s high school classes is stressful enough. I am so glad I don’t have to make a decision on sending her to live somewhere else. I have several friends in that boat. Waiting to see what their respective colleges are going to do. Trying to figure out what would be best for their kid. There are so many moving parts that keep moving. I won’t go into too much of a political rant but this is exactly why we needed a cohesive national plan for the pandemic. I can’t imagine being a parent of a student who lives in an area that is doing ok or maybe even has things mostly contained only to be looking at sending my kid to a college in an area that has rising cases and overwhelmed hospital systems.
Having students leave at Thanksgiving is fairly basic epidemic math: *assuming* the college can get COVID transmission on campus down to zero eventually during the earlier portion of the semester, with testing incoming students and contact tracing and quarantining (which is pretty unlikely, to be honest), then the students will be mostly “clean” to go home for Thanksgiving. But, either in travel or at home, some of them will pick up germs (remembering that Thanksgiving is an indoor, all-day, large-gathering holiday for most people). If they come back to campus for the two or three weeks before the end of the semester, then those germs come to campus with some of them, the students mix for two or three weeks and spread the germs, then everyone carries what they’ve just caught back to their homes (since 2 or 3 weeks isn’t long enough to catch and quarantine everyone who has caught it from the students who brought it back to campus). If they stay home, then any families and students who were infected by their Thanksgiving celebrations will have to deal with that, but no one else will; the students will be at home between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and thus Christmas celebrations are less likely to kill grandma.
That said, I think it’s nuts to have everyone come together in the first place unless you’ve got really good measures in place to both identify cases and stop spread to begin with. But *assuming* colleges manage to be extremely aggressive with testing, contact tracing, and quarantining – aggressive enough to kill spread within a month or two of starting fall semester – then I think the “…yeah, don’t have people go to their families, come back briefly for finals and re-mix, and then bring everyone’s germs back to their families” thing is sound. I just seriously doubt most colleges in America will actually be able to put a lid on infections if people are living communally and going to in-person classes. But maybe! :-)
The “have them come together in the first place” thing is based almost entirely on “we do face to face instruction well and it’s what students and parents want/are paying for/ will come back for,” not about safety. Everything ELSE, all the mitigation, is about safety. Being together in the first place is about trying to salvage some sense of normalcy and keep tuition and enrollment at a reasonable number. I think.
I think you’re right about normalcy, tuition, and enrollment being substantial drivers of the “we’re at least going to *start* with face-to-face” thing; I know of at least one university that basically said “we’re not going to be able to financially weather this unless we get decent enrollment numbers, and we won’t get decent enrollment numbers without face to face.” (and face-to-face really is a lot easier to stay motivated and energized with than Zoom, for most people!) But… in a lot of cases, “normalcy” means “recklessness and a bunch of people dying unnecessarily” and I don’t like this?
Some colleges might be able to do enough revisions to their structures (extra HVAC filtering! reduced dorm populations! remove “funnel” points on campus to reduce crowding!) and get enough compliance with mask-wearing and distancing that it might be safe, or at least safe-ish, although I have yet to see a set of policies that looks really *likely* to be safe – probably because “what is necessary to do to be safe during a pandemic” does not look “reassuringly normal” to people (and because many administrators don’t really want to do the work; it’s much easier to say “social distancing where possible” rather than figuring out how to make social distancing possible in more cases).
Now that ICE is saying they’ll deport international students if their colleges swap to online-only, that’s another motivator, though – which is where the schools with substantial endowments who had planned to go online-only are now trying to figure out what exactly to do…
I’m really interested in the negotiation (if any) between you and your college students on this topic? I know the options aren’t even clear, but once they are, surely there will be many families where students will disagree with parents on what to do, and how do you work through that? Is it, I Pay, I Decide, or? I haven’t heard much about this issue but it must be out there.
I AM INTERESTED IN THIS, TOO. I had this tentative conversation with Paul, like—who gets to decide, if there is a disagreement? If they were to insist on going back, and we didn’t think it was safe, what would we do then? And would they be allowed to return home, possibly infecting the entire family? And imagine families where the STUDENTS don’t think it’s safe to go back, but the PARENTS are rolling their eyes and saying of COURSE you’re going back.
Well. I am hoping it goes more smoothly than that at my house. I talked briefly with both Rob and William, and so far they are both leaning toward going online if possible, which is our inclination as well. Like, OBVIOUSLY it is not as good as Normal College, but considering Normal College is NOT one of the options reality has presented us with at this time, Online College seems like the next best thing.
My son’s school (in Texas) still claims it is going on as usual. He’s going to head down there, regardless, as he will be living in an off campus “apartment” (more like a damn resort) and most classes are still supposedly in person. Even if they are online, it is better for him to be there than here for his “personal development” and my sanity.
Our neighbor will be a Harvard sophomore. Her mom says that the parents of Harvard students are pissed off about the online only for most (frosh get to be in person for fall semester, seniors for spring semester). The parents are talking lawsuits…
Aiaiai it isn’t really clear when it will get better or safer.
I can understand being very upset that things will be different. I think it’s completely nuts for parents to try to push for an everyone-on-campus option, though, even just based on history; see Harvard and the Spanish Influenza: https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-cambridge.html
Like, we *know* what happens with epidemics and college campuses. And it is not very good.
(admittedly, I am biased because I know historians and archivists who have done work on Epidemics In Colleges and what the colleges end up having to do once the local medical system is overwhelmed, and I knew the Medical Director of a university and he was *always* on the watch for potential epidemics and trying to squash them before they really got anywhere (quarantining students! doing really zippy detective work to identify sources of food poisoning!), because once things spread into dorms and similar, then your containment options drop and you start having to look at what buildings you can re-purpose into hospital wards and where you can get supplies and staffing, and that is No Fun At All. I think they only hit maximum on the medical center’s wards once – for one of the pandemic H1N1s – and I think they were able to figure out not-panic-inducing solutions for that, but it was still a giant complex all-the-medical-staff-working-overtime thing, and they were very worried, because peoples’ survival rates for just about anything depend on them getting prompt and appropriate care, and the more your resources are stretched, the less likely that is, and we want to keep people alive. So! Assuming parents also want to keep their students alive, pushing hard for them to *all* be on campus *during a pandemic* seems like… not the brightest move to me.)